Editor:
After reading what Vancouver Coastal Health said about residential care services on the Sunshine Coast, I checked the definition of privatization.
I learned that: “When something is owned by government and its ownership becomes privately held, it’s called privatization.” At the heart of privatization is the word private, rooted in the Latin privatus, “belonging to the self rather than the state.”
So no matter what spokespeople for Vancouver Coastal Health say, it follows that if the plan is to contract with a for-profit business like Trellis Group / Silverstone Care Centre owned by Mary McDougall, to provide residential care that is funded with public funds that will earn a profit for the owners, it’s “privatus.”
It scares the heck out of me.
We in the community – us, our neighbours, family members, friends and other community members – could at any time require crucial residential care services like palliative care, respite care, long-term care or any variations.
None of us can afford to wear blindfolds and ignore evidence.
For employees at Shorncliffe and Totem Lodge, it will mean job losses, lower wages and fewer benefits, and the loss of credit for the previous years working at the same jobs.
Those of us who will access residential care need to know about the dreadful impacts when business owners get into the residential services to make a profit. Day-to-day operations run with lower staffing levels, there’s higher staff turnover and the results are poorer health outcomes and higher patient mortality rates.
Well, no wonder we are horrified!
We need to take immediate responsibility and let the health authority know that we don’t want residential care or any other publicly-funded services to be privatized!
Dianne Goldberg, Halfmoon Bay
